USA > South Carolina > Berkeley County > Goose Creek > St. James church, Goose Creek, S. C. : a sketch of the parish from 1706 to 1909 > Part 7
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Now, why I say that is this: That church had been, Mr. Thomas says, erected several years before -- that was in 1704. How long before he does not say. At or before that time there was another church erected in Goose Creek, and that was a small French Huguenot church, about four miles to the northwest of us, within a mile and a half of Ladson Station, where there had been a settlement of French Huguenots, and there was unques- tionably a small church there by 1700. But in one of the old wills or deeds there is a reference to that church in contradistinction from the church existing, the Church of England, and, therefore, it is fair for us to assume that when the phrase "several years be- fore" is used by Mr. Thomas, taken in connection with what he says about the parish being settled by Church of England people, and the church being constructed by Goose Creek people, it is fair to assume that it was the Church of England, and that it had been constructed twelve to fifteen years previously, when the Parish had become well settled. This is a mere surmise, but we know certainly that in 1704 there was such a structure, and in 1706 there was passed an Act, known among lawyers as the Church Act, whereby the different parishes were constituted as existing di- visions for church purposes, and the parish, comprising the terri- tory known as Goose Creek, was designated as the St James, Goose Creek Parish. Authority was given to proceed with the
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erection of a church building, and from that time we have the positive records as to the erection of the building which is now upon the ground. It was begun in 1714 and finally completed in 1719. And the building as completed in 1719, although it has gone through vicissitudes too numerous and too painful to re- count-having been wrecked by storm and torn by earthquakes - yet the church which was completed in 1719 is the church which is now before us.
We know the date of its construction, and we know the date at which, therefore, the parish assumed its continuing and permna- nent form, with the church as its centre. It became known then not only ecclesiastically, but politically as a political division of the country known as the Parish of St James, Goose Creek, until 1865.
Now, as to the people who contributed to this building, those fervent and devout members of the Church of England with whom the territory was covered who built first out of their own funds a house of worship, which finally with the growth of the Parish, culminated in the present building.
The settlements made in Goose Creek were made almost entirely by Church of England people. Goose Creek was known as the English Settlement, and with one exception, it was English. The only exception was a settlement of Huguenots, which I have al- ready alluded to, four or five miles from here. The names of many have passed away, but few have passed away without leaving their decendants in South Carolina.
One of the first, or, rather, the two first to settle there were the two brothers, Abraham Fleury de la Plein and Isaac Fleury de la . Plein, who both received grants which became the centre of a little French settlement. Isaac Porcher, of St. Senere, in France, was the ancestor of the Porcher family, whose first settlement in this country was in St James, Goose Creek, where he lived his life and died, and where, without being able to speak positively, he is buried near this parish church. Because the right of burial was not confined in the parish church when it became a political division to one who was a worshipper according to the rights and discipline of the Church of England, but after that time any resi- dent who contributed to its support, or paid his taxes, had the right of burial.
There was this French settlement, and with the exception of that there was the English settlement, names also strewn over this place, from the mouth of Goose Creek along Foster's Creek, up to the Back River and beyond. Beginning with Goose Creek was the settlement, not the earliest, but beginning with the settle- ment of the creek, of one who was coeval with the foundation of the parish territory, that of Landgrave Thomas Smith. That was not his home place of residence near the mouth of Goose Creek. The property was his and the grant was his, but the place at which
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THE RALPH VZAND HAICHMEST. ST. JAMES'S, GOOSE CREEK.
(Supposed to be one of only two in America.)
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the Landgrave himself resided was a plantation of his along Back River, a few miles off, and where his tomb can be seen to- day in the old family burying ground. He also had a place along Yeamans' Creek or Goose Creek, always known as Yeamans' Hall, because it was originally a grant to Lady Margaret Yeamans, and transferred to him; the second and third Landgrave living there, but not himself.
Then there settled in Goose Creek the family of Izard, whose home place, the Elms, is just across the Creek from here, and who spread out at one time in several branches in the neighborhood.
Then were settled here the Middletons, Edward and Arthur, the residence of one being at the Oaks, just beyond the public road, and that of the other at the Otranto plantation, his residence being at the spot where the Otranto Club House now stands.
Then there was Governor James Moore, the revolutionary Governor of South Carolina, the leader of the turbulent Goose Creek men. llis grants are just to the north, known by the Indian names of Wapensaw and Boo-Chaw. There he lived, and and there his son lived after him, well known, and there is still the remains of the large brick building he constructed. It after- wards passed into the hands of the Mazyek family and remained with them for generations.
Early, and following Moore and acquiring his property, was the family of the Mazyek; one branch of them, and next to them were the Davises. Then, across Goose Creek, were two families, similar in name, except as to the first initial, the Barkers and the Parkers. The Parkers have increased and multiplied, and we still have their descendants in South Carolina, if not in Goose Creek. Of that family of Barkers there are now no lineal male descendants left, but only descendants in the female line.
Col. John Berringer and Mr. John Gibbes, whose memorial is on the wall of yonder church, settled at the head of Goose Creek, just above, not three miles from where we are. Then followed around them a long list of names. Edward Hyrne, from whom one branch of the Simonses came; George Chiken, who was the skilful leader in the command of the Goose Creek militia; Col. Schenckingh, whose plantation lay just to the right below here, and to whose son, Benjamin, is due in great part the present glebe of this church; Abraham DuPont, or as generally pronounced in Goose Creek, DuPong; Richard Singleton, the aneestor of the Singleton family; Edward Kealing, whose place, at the sociable hall, at Twenty-three Mile House, was for many years the gather- ing place of the Goose Creek Friendly or River Club, formed by the Goose Creek planters for the purposes of social intercourse; Edward Norman; Job Howe, who lived at Howe Hall; John Filben, whose name still exists in Filbens Creek. After them Joseph Thoragord and Seaman Deas, who lived at the place known as Thoragord, granted to Joseph Thoragord. The remains of their
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building, on a large scale, still stands about five miles west. Thomas Monck, some relative of the Duke of Albemarle, provided for by a large grant of three thousand acres, and after whom Monck's Corner has received its name; Benj'n. Villepontoux, one of the French settlers, but who settled apart from the small settle- ment of French to whom I have alluded.
These were the names, as the records show, of grantees, prop- erty-owners, taxpayers of the parish at the time the church was built, and although the records are gone, nothing being there to show to whose contributions is due the erection of the buikling, it is fair to assume that all these, members of the church, prominent citizens of the time, land owners and residents, were among those to whom it was due.
In considering, therefore, the history of the parish, with its development, and the history of the people who contributed to it, we can only proceed upon the hypothesis that they were those who were most interested, and those are the people to whom I have referred. Therefore, upon this 200th anniversary of the founding of this parish as ecclesiastically recognized in church polity as a parish, it is only fair that in the history of the church which was erected there should be some mention of those who in all probability contributed to its erection. Not only that. Al- though it is not generally known, so numerous was the congrega- tion of this church that its capacity was found in a few years wholly insufficient and provision was made for that by the erection of what was known as a Chapel of Ease; that is to say, a chapel or place of worship additional to the parish church, but only ap- pendant to it; not a church in which the meetings of the parish- ioners were held when a warrant was issued for the election of a rector or anything of that kind, but a place provided for the con- venience of those parishioners residing in the neighborhood, and at which the rector was obliged to officiate once a month.
That Chapel of Ease was situated upon the road that we left behind us at the bridge, about seven miles distant. Nothing is left of it now but its foundation. So far as you can gather from the scant memoranda left in notes at the time it appears to have been destroyed during the Revolutionary war. The Parish Church was not destroyed. Tradition has it that it was spared be- cause of the fact that above its chancel there are, as you have seen, the Royal Arms of England. It may be that the Chapel of Ease lacked these, or it may be that, being upon a piece of land owned by Capt. George Chiken, which was close to the road, it naturally suffered the fate which we in South Carolina have cause to know accompanies the transit of an hostile enemy over our soil. At any rate, there are its remains; there are the sleeping places of its old parishioners, known to but few. And yet there is the burial place of the Mahams; of the Haigs, of old Dr. Brown, of Brownfield, a physician of good repute in his time, who died and
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was buried in 1757. And yet of those of us who, as a rule, know of St James, Goose Creek, how few are even acquainted with the existence of that spot; and fewer still, it naturally follows, have ever visited it.
Finally, in the brief time which is left to me in giving, on this two hundredth anniversary, such brief recognition as it is meet and proper that we should give after the recognition which we have given to that most pious servant of the Lord, the Rev. Richard Ludlam, who so worked and acted in his life time that still the youth of this parish are experiencing the benefits of his benefaction, I should call attention to those who were the donors af the property around the church and of which its property now consists.
The first donor who donated the property upon which the church stands was Mr. Benjamin Godin, who, so far as I can ascertain about him, if originally of Huguenot extraction, yet came from England, where he had apparently been for some time, and at any rate he seems to have been a fervent follower of the Church of England. Sixteen acres he donated for a church yard, and it is upon those sixteen acres that the church and church yard now stands.
The next donor was Mr. Benjamin Schenckingh, who donated a glebe of one hundred acres. That glebe lies to the south, between ourselves and the creek. It is still owned by the Church, and al- ways has been a glebe in the sense a glebe was used by them, main- ly for the support of the rector. At the same time there was donated by Arthur C. Middleton four acres, upon which the first parsonage was erected, not 250 yards below us on the right here. Subsequently the inhabitants of St James, Goose Creek, stimulated by the example of the benefaction of Mr Ludlam, out of their own contributions purchased a considerable part of the original Godin tract, from Mr. Charles Pinckney, who then owned it. One hundred acres they added to the glebe, and two hundred acres they appropriated for the purpose of a free school, to be used in connection with the Ludlam bequest, the income of which was under the terms of the will, and the deed of trust thereafter made to be donated to the support of the school,
Finally there was a donation of twelve acres by Henry Middle- ton, just in front of the old avenue, which now leads to the Oaks property.
Those constituted the original property of the parish, which it still owns and which have been conserved, it is nothing but the barest justice to say, by the greatest care and diligence and in- telligent effort on the part of the vestry, who have had it in charge for the last score of years.
Those, I think, are all who donated property to the church, and in stating who they were and what they did I have about covered the period of time which should be allotted to me for that purpose.
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In so doing it is, however, impossible to resist expressing that feel- ing which must come over all of us in considering that of all of those names, with but five exceptions known to me, there exist no land-owners and residents in the Parish to-day, who are di- rectly or lineally descended from them. All things are mutable in life, and in the flight of time it is but natural that they should have disappeared. But no one can resist the feeling that I have myself, who have personally visited the home of every one of them, and at the thought that they should have so completely disappeared.
On that I can only add what was said in the great Devere Earl of Oxford case by one of the greatest and most independent of English lawyers and Judges. Chief Justice Randolf Creuse, who, in giving vent to the same thought I have endeavored feebly to express, gave it in language which has been and always will be, a gem in the English tongue.
And yet Time hath his revolutions; there must be a period and an end to all temporal things-finis rerum-an end of names and dignities, and whatsoever is terrene; and why not of De Vere? For where is Bohm? Where is Mowbray? Where is Mortimer? Nay, which is more, and most of all, where is Plantagenet? They are entombed in the urns and sepulchres of mortality!
And so, in looking upon this church yard, I can only say that there followed these Goose Creek planters the fate of those who had gone before them and they, too, are interned in the urns and sepulchres of mortality. Yonder lies, separated by a few bricks, the burial place of the Izard family, at one time the largest land- holders of the Parish. And yet, there is not a stone or a tablet outside the church to mark it, and nothing but continued ex- amination led me to the discovery that those few and broken- down bricks form what was formerly their burial lot.
I hope I have not exceeded, Right Reverend Sir, the time I should have taken, but my watch tells me bought not to extend it.
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ST. JAMES CHURCH, GOOSE CREEK.
In the falling of the twilight, When all nature seems to rest. I stood and viewed the ancient temple Lighted by the glowing west.
I thought me of its former glory, And pictured there the silent dead. They seemed to live again. In fancy I listened to their measured tread.
The coaches came with Miss and Madam, Their Cavaliers on horseback rode, With sword by side and pistol flashing, They galloped down the sunlit road.
The reverent crowd with heads uncovered, Enter now the sacred fane,
Kneeling there in deep devotion, Joining in the solemn strain.
The priest clad in snowy vestments, Scarcely whiter than his hair,
Reads the holy words of Scripture, Now ascends the pulpit stair.
I seem to hear his voice expounding The sacred words of Gospel truth Telling again that sweetest Story Alike to age and eager youth.
The silence of the night has fallen, I turn and leave the holy ground With its past and hallowed memories, With the sleeping dead around.
A memory of the days departed. Long may this ancient building stand. A link which binds the Past and Present, Joining them as 'twere hand in hand. J. I. W. April-1909.
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THE CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, GOOSE CREEK.
In the old Colonial days Here they met for prayer and praise, Down the shaded country roads Drove the coaches with their londy Gentlemen with powdered hair, Stately dames sedate and fair: All the beauty and the pride Of a happy country-side,
Through the churchyard, now so drear, Rang the sound of voiees elear: Shifting colour filled the place, Sunlight glanced on silk and lace. Sweet the perfume from the pine And the golden blossomed vine. While from twig and moss-hung bough Red-birds twittered then, as now.
From the quaint old pulpit there, Now so desolate and bare, One who knew his hearers well Prosed of Heaven and threatened Hell. Through the leaves the breezes stirred, "Ree-nal Ree-na!"' sang a bird. Till the earth and sky and air Seemed one palpitating prayer.
Ah, the beauty and the show Vanished many years ago! Pride and plenty are but names Through the Parish of St. James. Barren all the country-side Still for turning of the tide, Ifere with humble hearts to-day Let us hope and let us pray. Lha Hoank SMITH.
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